Strong defense keys Ventura water polo victory over Moorpark

Ventura’s George Mikhailovski, left, and Moorpark’s Jake Watowa battle for possession during a game on Oct. 17. The two teams will meet in the first round of the Division 2 playoffs on Wednesday.(Photo: KAREN QUINCY LOBERG/THE STAR)Buy Photo

Last year Peyton Collins and his Ventura High teammates watched an up and coming Moorpark water polo team come into their pool and swim away with a win. It marked the first time that Moorpark had beaten the Cougars in water polo.

On Tuesday, Collins and his teammates showed up in Moorpark looking to gain little revenge and to show the Musketeers how challenging games are in CIF Division 2 play, which is division both teams will compete in come postseason.

Thanks to Collins standout play at both ends of the pool and some strong goal keeping from Russ Huizenga, Ventura got the revenge it was looking for, walking off with a 9-5 victory.

As usual, Collins led the way with four goals, including his team’s final two scores in the fourth quarter that sealed the win.

But Collins was equally effective on the defensive end, shadowing Moorpark’s top scorer Andre Galvez. Galvez scored twice, but Collins forced him to work extremely hard for every shot, and there were moments when the senior seemed frustrated by his inability to get his shots off.

“I take more pride in my defense than I do with scoring goals,” Collins said. “Defense wins’ games and championships. They beat us last year in our pool so coming here and beating them in their pool is important.

“This is a smaller pool and that affects us a lot because we’re a fast team that likes to use our speed to our advantage. So coming here and winning in a smaller pool shows us we can win in any pool.”

From the opening whistle Ventura came out aggressively on defense. They put heavy pressure on the ball and were intent on trying to limit Moorpark’s ball movement and ability to attack.

Ventura head coach Spencer McGrath said his team takes pride in its defense and uses it to their advantage.

“We want to be a strong defensive team and our offense comes through our defense,” McGrath said. “In the beginning we used our counter-attack to get up on them a little bit. Robert Rose, one of our seniors got in there and put away some goals on the counter-attack and Michael Young drew some key ejections that got us those 6 on 5 opportunities.

“And Russ was solid. He turned away a lot of shots from Dane (Ley), Jake (Wotawa), and Andre (Galvez). They were throwing bullets and he was getting up and stopping them. Those were a few of the keys to us getting the W.”

Rose to Ventura off to a quick lead with a goal at the 4:09 mark of the first quarter. Ley tied the game for Moorpark with a goal a few minutes later.

Seconds later, Collins scored his first goal giving Ventura a 2-1 lead after the first quarter. The Cougars score three more times in the second quarter on goals by Young, Ryan McCombs and Collins to grab a 5-1 halftime lead. The lead could have been bigger had it not been for some strong play from Moorpark goalie Freddie Houghton, who made several big stops at close range.

Moorpark came out of halftime with an increased focus on their own defense and it seemed to kick start the offense. Wotawa scored on a backhand flip and Tommy O’Sullivan added another goal for the Musketeers.

Young scored Ventura’s only goal of the quarter but just a minute later Galvez got his first goal, cutting the Ventura lead to 6-4 heading to the final quarter.

Early in the final quarter Huizenga made a beautiful length of the pool pass to Rose, who grabbed the ball and fired it past Houghton. Soon after, Collins followed with his final two goals of the game, clinching the win for Ventura.

“They are a big, fast physical team with experience,” Moorpark head coach Peter Daland said. “There were some advantages and they played well and won the game.

“We had 22 turnovers and you can’t win a game with 22 turnovers. That was the key. We can beat them but we have to minimize our mistakes and capitalize on our opportunities.”

The game comes at the halfway point of the regular season. Moorpark assistant coach Jess Settem said it was a good opportunity to get a barometer check on where Moorpark is as a team.

“We played good for three quarters, but we need to win the fourth quarter to win the game,” Settem said. “We are right where we need to be in training. Our Guys waked out of here with a positive attitude.”

McGrath is also pleased where his team is at as it begins the drive toward postseason.

“It gives us a solid win over a good non-league team which hopefully will help our seeding in CIF and ranking,” McGrath said. “This will help strengthen our effort to get a higher seed which could help us make a deep run in CIF.”